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"How do you know that?"

She took the Bible, ran her fingers over the leaves, and turned to the twentieth chapter of Exodus, the sixteenth verse, and read, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.' I learned that," said she," before I could read the Bible."

"Has any one told you that you were to be a witness in this case?" asked the judge.

"Yes, sir. After mother heard that I was to be called, she took me to her room, and asked me to tell her the Ten Commandments; and mother and I knelt down and prayed that I might understand how wicked it was to bear false witness against a neighbour, and that God would help me to tell the truth if I had to go to court to-morrow. And when I went away, mother kissed me, and said to me, "Remember the Ninth Commandment; and remember that whatever you say in court, God hears every word of it.'

"Do you believe this?" asked the judge, while a tear glistened in his eye, and his lip quivered with emotion.

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Yes, sir," said the child, in a way which showed that she meant what she said.

"God bless you, my child!" said the judge. "You have a good mother. This witness is competent," he added. "If I were on trial for my life to-day, and innocent of the charge, I would pray God to give me such a witness as this child. Let her be examined."

This little girl told the truth when she was called upon to speak as a witness in court. But we should feel as if we were in court at all times when we open our lips to speak. This world is like a great court, and God is the judge.

THE PET LAMB.

THE dew was falling fast; the stars began to blink; I heard a voice, it said, "Drink, pretty creature, drink ;"

And, looking o'er the hedge, before me I espied

A snow-white mountain lamb with a maiden at its side.

No other sheep were near; the lamb was all alone, And by a slender cord was tethered to a stone; With one knee on the grass did the little maiden kneel, While to that mountain lamb she gave its evening meal.

The lamb, while from her hand he thus his supper

took,

Seemed to feast with head and ears, and his tail with pleasure shook;

"Drink, pretty creature, drink," she said, in such a tone

That I almost received her heart into my own.

"Twas little Barbara Lethwaite, a child of beauty rare! I watched them with delight; they were a lovely pair. Now with her empty can the maiden turned away; But ere ten yards were gone, her footsteps she did stay.

Towards the lamb she looked; and from that shady place

I unobserved could see the workings of her face : If nature to her tongue could measured numbers bring, . Thus, thought I, to her lamb that little maid might sing:

What ails thee, young one? what! why pull so at thy cord?

Is it not well with thee? well both for bed and

board?

Thy plot of grass is soft, and green as grass can be ; Rest, little young one, rest; young one, rest; what is't that aileth thee?

"What is it thou wouldst seek? what is wanting to thy heart?

Thy limbs are they not strong? and beautiful thou art. This grass is tender grass; these flowers they have no peers;

And that green corn all day long is rustling in thy ears!

“If the sun be shining hot, do but stretch thy woollen chain;

This birch is standing by, its covert thou canst gain; For rain and mountain storms-the like thou needst

not fear

The rain and storm are things that scarcely can come here.

"Rest, little young one, rest; thou hast forgot the day

When my father found thee first in places far away; Many flocks were on the hills, but thou wert owned

by none,

And thy mother from thy side for evermore was gone.

"He took thee in his arms, and in pity brought thee

home :

Oh, blessed day for thee! Then whither wouldst . thou roam?

yean

A faithful nurse thou hast ; the dam that did thee Upon the mountain tops no kinder could have been.

"Thou know'st that twice a day I have brought thee in this can

Fresh water from the brook, as clear as ever ran : And twice in the day, when the ground is wet with dew,

I bring thee draughts of milk; warm milk it is, and

new.

"Thy limbs will shortly be twice as stout as they are

now;

Then I'll yoke thee to my cart, like a pony in the plough:

My playmate thou shalt be; and when the wind is cold, Our hearth shall be thy bed, our house shall be thy fold.

"Alas! the mountain tops, that look so green and fair, I've heard of fearful winds and darkness that come

there;

The little brooks, that seem all pastime and all play, When they are angry, roar like lions for their prey.

"Here thou needest not dread the raven in the sky; Night and day thou art safe; our cottage is hard by. Why bleat so after me? why pull so at thy chain? Sleep, and at break of day I will come to thee again."

As homeward through the lane I went with lazy feet,
This song to myself did I oftentimes repeat;
And it seemed, as I retraced the ballad line by line,
That but half of it was hers, and one half of it was

mine.

Again, and once again, did I repeat the

song:

Nay," said I, "more than half to the damsel must belong;

For she looked with such a look, and she spoke with

such a tone,

That I almost received her heart into my own."

WORDSWORTH.

DREAMING SUSY.

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"How nice it would be," thought Susy, "if I lived in a palace, and had a fairy god-mother! There was once a princess whose cruel step-mother put her in a room where there was a great heap of feathers. 'These,' said she, are the feathers of a hundred different birds, and you must pick them all out by night, and have each kind by itself in a hundred different heaps, or I'll kill you.' So the poor princess cried and cried."

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Susy, Susy," cried Joe, "you're away off in the clouds. You're not studying at all.”

"I will in a minute," cried Susy, emphatically; and then she went on.

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So the poor princess cried, and cried, till at last her fairy godmother came, and waved her wand three times, and every little blue and red feather flew into its place in a minute. Now," thought Susy, "if a fairy could only come and wave over this lesson, and make every figure fly just where it ought, and make all the sense of it run into my brain, how splendid it would be! Then, when I recited, the teacher would say, 'You have done admirably, Miss Susan; go to the head of the class ;" and-"

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